5 Internet Marketing Tips We Wish Someone Told Us Five Years Ago

So maybe we didn't have these tips when we were starting out, but you can!

When you’re running a small, independent business, you don’t have much (if any) extra time to spend on internet marketing tips that aren’t already proven to be successful, cost effective, and reasonably easy to implement. Whether you have a small staff or if you’re a solopreneur, there are so many business tasks that need to be handled over the course of the work-day that it’s easy to put aside or not give serious thought to internet marketing strategies. However, if you want your business to stay strong within your marketplace, implementing even a basic internet marketing strategy is essential. Here are five of our favorite tips for making internet marketing work for you and your business:

Reach your customer base.

What are the demographics of your primary customer group? For example, if you’re operating an ecommerce store that sells environmentally friendly clothing and products for babies, toddlers, and children, chances are your primary customer group will be women in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. Which social media platforms do women in this category use the most? It’s likely they’ll be using Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram. These customers may also be highly connected to select blogs and websites that align with their interests (environmentally friendly products) and life stage (parenting children). Reach out to your customers frequently in the places they regularly inhabit and don’t waste time or money in those places they don’t (um, like, how many moms with young children have time to read the daily newspaper?)

Communicate with focus and precision.

When you determine which social or traditional media platforms are highly relevant to your customer base, drill down and pick ONE (or maybe two…) that you will focus your energies on. Maybe you decide that having a very well-designed, content-rich e-newsletter is the way to go or maybe you want to seriously give video-marketing a try or maybe the plan is to convert your growing number of Instagram followers into increased leads and sales. Whatever avenue you pick, go for it with 100% focused effort and evaluate the results every step of the way.

Your content needs to be relevant, and useful.

Whether you’re engaging with customers on Facebook, e-newsletters, direct mail, video marketing, blogging… make sure that every piece of created content is relevant and useful to your customers. Your customers have limited time and limited attention spans – make sure you’re grabbing their eyeballs with high-quality photos, images, video, articles that have a compelling call to action.

Internet marketing is never free.

When you’re trying to determine your best internet marketing strategy, be sure to remember that any marketing effort – whether you engage in paid advertising or decide to grow your customer base organically by creating relevant, useful content – has a cost attached to it. In one scenario, you are contracting with an outside vendor and paying them to advertise, in the other, you are devoting time, energy and resources on a daily or weekly basis to reach out to your customer base. Sometimes it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that home-grown content marketing is “free” as you or someone on your staff is responsible for it. Just remember – time is money and you want to make sure you’re using every hour as effectively as possible.

“Someday” is not a day of the week.

It can be a real challenge to undertake a new marketing endeavor when you’re already strapped for time. Have you been wanting to update your website, launch a social media account, start blogging or create business videos but never seem to find the time? Commit yourself to starting, set aside ten or fifteen minutes every day, and slowly make progress on building your marketing and communication strategy. This could mean posting to Facebook or Instagram a few times each week, writing a bi-weekly blog article, or creating a short, informational video using your smartphone once a month. With consistent and persistent effort, your marketing efforts will become a part of your daily or weekly schedule.

We know how busy you are! We also know that many times a business owner will encounter a great marketing idea, but struggle with carving out the time to implement it effectively. If you’re looking for a business to help create, launch, and evaluate your web and social media marketing, let us know. We’re happy to work with you, provide answers to your questions, solutions to your marketing concerns, and help you reach your target customer base.

14 Comments

You make a goo point about putting in a little every day into your online marketing. I’ve done a couple videos and some blog posts. I might just hire some to do my digital marketing and see how it goes.

I seriously wish I would have known this three years ago when I first started blogging. It’s so important to know who your target market is which this article specifically mentions several times. “Someday” is not a day of the week 🙂 Definitely the biggest obstacle I face when it comes to work ethic and commitment. Excellent read. Thanks!

Hello Laura Zurowski,
I must say it is a good article on internet marketing. Good Job, but I want to know one more thing, You didn’t write anything about length of the content?? Is 1000 words are enough for regular posting over blog.

Thanks for sharing. This is some great advice. I agree with you; if you are going to create any kind of message it needs to be relevant to your customer or product. You always need to keep in mind your target audience. You should always cater the message to them.

Hehe “Internet Marketing is never free” You hit the nail on the head there.

“Someday is not a day of the week” Execution is so important, it outweighs even great ideas. Gary Vaynerchuk speaks about this and he is so right. There is a good video on Tai Lopez’s YouTube channel with Gary where they talk about this, it is a good watch if you would like to check it out. Tai Lopez and Gary Vaynerchuk are great Internet Marketers. I am sure you have heard of them, if not definitely check them out on YouTube.

So many business owners really don’t have time to invest into developing a strong marketing plan. Unfortunately, they also often think that they can’t afford to hire an internet marketing team, either. I love your suggestions and how you drive home the point that marketing is never free. You simply must spend money to make money. Great article.

Excellent stuff, thanks! One of the problems we face is the perceived value of internet marketing from other business owners. We’ve had people try to get top rank quality SEO for $50/mo. And then they’ll go get 4 billboards on the busiest highways. It doesn’t make any sense, but their frame of reference is simply not the same.

Hi Jack, We completely understand where you’re coming from. Sometimes it just takes a little extra explaining so business owners can understand the work that goes into developing a strong online presence.